A true hidden champion
Cultivation of green algae in Taiwan began in the 1960s, and later, with the help of technical assistance from Japan, Taiwan became a major exporter of chlorella. At its peak, more than 30 companies were mass-producing chlorella in Taiwan, providing 90% of the global supply, and even in 2006, 80% of the world’s chlorella was being exported from Taiwan. Today, after six decades of change in the industry, the main exporting countries are Taiwan, China, Germany, Japan, and India. According to statistics released in March of 2023 by the Department of Industrial Technology of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Taiwan’s exports of green algae in 2022 totaled 928.56 metric tons, accounting for 45.05% of the global total, meaning that Taiwan has the highest market share in the world. Meanwhile, figures published by the China Grain Products Research and Development Institute indicate that in 2021 the total value of chlorella production in Taiwan was some NT$700 million.
At present Taiwan has five or six companies mass-producing green algae, of which the longest-established is the Taiwan Chlorella Manufacturing Company (TCMC), founded in 1964. When TCMC first started out, they recruited Dr. Yoshiro Takechi, director of the Tokugawa Institute for Biological Research in Japan, to come to Taiwan to assist them in selecting chlorella strains and in improving their clean culturing technology. “Although Japanese scientists had long known about the nutritional value of chlorella and had conducted many years of research into its cultivation, Japan’s colder climate made it difficult to culture green algae and impossible to do so year-round. When they discovered Taiwan’s abundant sunlight, favorable climate, and easy access to pure unpolluted water, they knew they had found a place well-suited to cultivating chlorella,” says Helena Song, research and development manager at TCMC. In the early days, all the chlorella produced by TCMC was exported to Japan, because Japan already had a well-developed market for the product and many people were aware of the benefits of consuming it. Later, as chlorella evolved into a global superfood, consumers in many countries recognized the high quality of the green algae produced in Taiwan and its rigorous food safety standards as well as the ideal and pristine culturing environment, and currently you can find Taiwanese chlorella products in more than 30 countries.
Chlorella has a diameter of only two to eight microns, and to clearly see the process of cell division one needs a microscope with a magnification of at least 600x.